A UNIFIED FOREIGN SERVICE

SAMUEL MACCLINTOCK

Our government maintains a large and expensive foreign service. The business interests of the country recognize the value of adequate representation abroad and support vigorously measures intended to improve and expand this field. For the fiscal year 1922-23 Congress has increased the appropriations for this branch of the public service while cutting down almost all domestic expenditures.1

Our service in the foreign field has only one rival in its completeness and effectiveness, and that naturally is Great Britain's. Before the war comparison was often made with Germany, France, Japan and other nations, and critics could point to individual excellencies in all of these; but they in turn were generous in praise of our service and generally accorded it first rank, especially on its promotional side. The one outstanding weakness of this service at the present time is its lack of unity, resulting in duplicate activities, rivalries, uncertainties to those using the service and needless expense to the taxpayers.

In addition to the two major departments concerned with our foreign relations, there are also a number of other departments, bureaus or agencies of the government which have some foreign activities. Thus, the treasury department in the collection of customs; agriculture, in investigating foreign markets for its products; the bureau of immigration in enforcing its regulations; the war finance corporation in the financing of exports; and the federal reserve board in maintaining government banking connec

The appropriation for the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce alone for the year 1922-23 is $1,669,310 and is about 30 per cent larger than for the previous year.

tions abroad all are concerned to some degree with our foreign relations.2

On its political side the state department functions through its diplomatic service. Its ambassadors or ministers are accredited to all independent governments which have been recognized by our government. It lies outside the scope of this article to develop this aspect of our service. Suffice it to say that the ambassador or minister as head of the mission, ranks all other regularly appointed agents, and has, therefore, in theory at least, general supervision over all lesser officials of his own branch of the service.

The diplomatic agents have, in the past, confined their efforts largely to political and ceremonial activities, leaving to consular and other agents the development of commercial relations. There is a distinct tendency in recent times, however, for the diplomatic representatives to recognize the basic importance of commerce to political action. There is consequently a decided tendency to take a more active hand in studying business relationships and especially in supervising the work of our commercial representatives in their jurisdiction. Thus our ambassador to France not long ago called into conference all the American consular officials in that country for the purpose of discussing their problems and the best way to meet them. This is a hopeful step in the direction of greater unity in at least one branch of the foreign service.

Diplomatic representatives do not, however, ordinarily inform the department of current commercial movements and do not, therefore, present such facts in reports intended for the public. This is done, so far as the state department is concerned, by the consular officers.

The American consular service numbers some 700 members, all told, including all grades from consul general to student interpreter. They cover every part of the world having Ameri

2 For dealing with the debts due us from the Allies a special commission was set up by Congress, composed of the secretaries of the treasury, state and commerce, as well as presidential appointees.

In the spring of 1922 there were 202 American consuls in Europe, 85 in Asia, 23 in Africa, 33 in South America, 11 in Central America, 63 in North America, 23 in the West Indies, and 17 in Australasia.

can interests of any importance. Their work is both commercial and non-commercial. As instances of the latter may be mentioned their duties in connection with shipping, immigration, passport regulations, and in general looking after the interests of their nationals.

The commercial work of consuls is of large importance and embraces every aspect of advancing American interests. This means studying and reporting upon all phases of commercial activity and opportunities. Consular reports are often criticised on the ground of being too general, too broad, or too concerned with trivial details. Counting the shells on the seashore of a particular beach is humorously cited as an instance. Without attempting to weigh at length such criticisms let it be said in passing that consuls are general officers, charged with a multiplicity of duties, and cannot, therefore, reasonably be expected to be highly expert along any one line. This need not, however, preclude the service from having specialists, and as a matter of fact it does include quite a number of such experts at the present time, particularly in economic and financial matters.

Some three or four years ago the state department decided to organize a corps of economic experts, to be known as economist consuls. They were to be attached to the staffs of the larger consulates general in order to conduct or supervise the economic investigations in their districts. There are a number of these economist consuls in the service at the present time but the scheme does not seem to have worked well as a whole and is to be gradually abandoned, according to intimations now current.

The consular force throughout the world collects and transmits information upon practically every conceivable subject having any commercial bearing. These reports are both regular, or called for and occasional, or voluntary. Whether they are timely and valuable to our business interests depends both upon the aptitude of the consul and upon the directions and suggestions that he may receive from Washington. What is timely? What is valuable? To an executive interested in the broad, general aspects of economic movements within a country, the answer to these questions will be one thing; to a technical manager, con

cerned primarily with a close, detailed knowledge of some particular phase of industry or commerce, the answer will necessarily be quite different. The executive wants a broad, but sound summary; the production or sales manager wants details, specifications, concrete instances. To criticise consular reports without bearing these points in mind is hardly fair.

Reports from its consuls pour into the state department in great volume. They are read in the regional divisions to which they pertain, and the commercial reports are then turned over to the department of commerce for publication, or other use. The state department is thus in the rather anomalous position of collecting commercial information through a great series of reports from its agents around the world but not itself making them public. It turns them over to the department of commerce to use or not, as it thinks best.

A few years ago there developed an important office in the state department-that of the foreign trade advisor. This office was created in order to keep our business interests advised concerning foreign situations of a business character, especially those of a financial nature. In order to work well a personnel different from that of either economist or consul would be required, also a more practical business direction. At any rate, it did not go well and has been greatly curtailed. The office is still maintained but with a skeleton staff, most of the work formerly projected for it having passed to the department of commerce.

The bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, of the department of commerce, is at present organized primarily to promote American trade abroad. The domestic side of the bureau has not been developed much, though Secretary Hoover is making significant gestures in this direction, especially in the important conferences he has been holding with various business bodies. The Monthly Survey of Current Business, published jointly by the bureaus of census, standards, and commerce, is a concrete step in this direction.

In the spring of 1922, the foreign field organization of the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce consisted of 13 commercial attaches, 5 acting attaches, 27 general trade commis

sioners, 13 assistant trade commissioners, and 5 special trade commissioners. It will be noted that this is but a small force in comparison with the consular field force.

Commercial attaches are located in the principal commercial capitals of the world. They have a semi-attachment, of a somewhat sublimated kind, to the diplomatic mission, and are often housed in the embassy or legation. Thus they have diplomatic status, a matter of importance when it comes to dealing with the officials of foreign governments and otherwise acquiring sources of information.

The commercial attache does not report directly to the head of the mission and is not subject to the latter's supervision and direction. He reports directly to the department of commerce at home. In some places the relations between the diplomatic mission and the commercial attache are close and cordial, the former turning over to the latter practically all business of a commercial character, and the latter in turn informing the mission of all that takes place; in other places the relationship is decidedly remote. The two services have different origins, not to say purposes, and there is a strong feeling on the part of the older service that it is quite capable of handling all the work which needs to be done without the assistance of its rather aggressive junior partner.

A general trade commissioner is usually attached to the staff of the commercial attache, in case there is an attache in the country, but otherwise he reports directly to the home office. He is ordinarily assigned to the investigation of some particular trade line, but if there is no commercial attache in the country then the trade commissioner makes the broader and more general reports upon the economic and commercial conditions of the country as a whole.

Special trade commissioners are sent out by the bureau from time to time to make extensive investigations of some particular industry, trade, or development covering a wide area, perhaps a whole continent. Thus, in the spring of 1922, one special trade commissioner was investigating agricultural conditions in Europe; another the field for automotive products in the Far East;